The Girl Who Died
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Captain Zaraki of Squad Eleven isn't as heartless as one would think, especially when it comes to small children. So when he comes across a child drawing in her own blood, he takes her in. Chaos ensues as they learn that Hana is really the girl-who-lived...now dead! Will Hogwarts stand or is Dumbledore in for more than he bargained for? Fatherly Zaraki!
1. Chapter 1

Kenpachi Zaraki was not what you would call an ordinary captain. If anything, you would call him the most battle-hungry, bloodthirsty captain of the 13 Court Guard Squads. He was a berserker, plain and simple.

But he did have one weakness, if you could call it that.

He cared for really young children. It was why he adopted Yachiru when they were still in the Rukongai. If he hadn't taken her in, she would have died in an early age in that bloody district. Young children didn't last long there.

What people didn't know about him was that occasionally, when he went back to that district to fight hollows, he found children and moved them to another district. If they had the potential to be soul reapers, he moved them right next to the Soul Society so that they could survive long enough to get into the Academy. Some even ended up in his squad!

It was during one of his trips into his old district that he found her. A three year old girl with a very unusual power.

She had blood red hair and startling clear emerald eyes. She was shockingly skinny, as if she hadn't eaten in weeks. And her skin was so pale she could have been an emaciated corpse.

When Zaraki came across her, his only thought was that he was glad Yachiru decided to annoy his squad for the day. The girl was obviously bleeding heavily, but she didn't seem to notice that at all. If anything she was drawing flowers in what appeared to be her own blood.

He was so angry to see a child in such a condition he didn't realize his spiritual power was pulsing strong enough to flatten the nearby spirits.

The girl looked up when she felt that, and her clear eyes stared at him. She wasn't fazed by his overwhelming power in the least! If anything, she seemed to absorb and redirect it to him.

She didn't run when he picked her up, though she seemed to expect a blow when his hand came near her. Zaraki tried to calm his rage that such a young girl expected to be beaten whenever a hand was raised near her.

* * *

Unohana was shocked, then horrified when Zaraki appeared in her squad with a young child. At first she thought it was Yachiru, but closer inspection revealed the girl was too young even for his lieutenant.

She didn't ask where he had found her, or why he had brought the child to her squad. She simply went to work in healing the poor child's injuries before she died from them. For the next week, Zaraki would stop by and check on the little girl, who healed at an alarming rate.

Unohana didn't question this, thinking the girl reminded him of Yachiru.

When she finally opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Zaraki.

Unohana was upset to learn that the girl didn't even know her own name, since whoever had been abusing her just called her a freak. So Zaraki gave her one.

Chidarake Hana, the Bloody Flower.

Unohana gave him a look, but it softened when he explained that was how he had originally found her, drawing simple flowers with her own blood.

Considering who she was dealing with, it was a decent enough name. And it wasn't like people would ever call her by her last name anyway.

While Hana's injuries were healed enough that she wasn't in danger, she was still stuck living in the fourth's barracks for nearly two months before she was allowed to leave.

It didn't surprise Unohana in the least that the girl wanted to live with Zaraki. Since he was possibly the only person to show her any kindness, she likely developed an attachment to him.

Upon meeting Yachiru, who clearly recognized a fellow survivor of the 79th district, the two immediately bonded and practically became sisters.

It wasn't unheard of for a soul who wasn't a shinigami to live in the Seireitei, but it didn't happen often either. The last time something like this happened, Byakuya Kuchiki of the Kuchiki clan married a woman from Hanging Dog.

* * *

Hana was five when she first went into the Academy. It was mostly to keep her busy, since she had become a menace to anyone who annoyed her. Unlike Yachiru, who sometimes went on a sugar induced wave of destruction, Hana tended to prank people within an inch of their sanity when she was bored.

She was spared the lion's share of retribution for one reason, and one reason only.

She was the adopted daughter of Kenpachi Zaraki, and Yachiru's younger sibling. Anyone who tried to hurt her in any way faced the wrath of nearly the entire Eleventh Squad, particularly Ikkaku and Yumechika who were rather fond of her.

People still had a hard time believing that Zaraki adopted her like he did Yachiru. But once they got past her pranks, they found out she was really a little sweetheart.

She could worm her way into the most cold and aloof people around.

Like Byakuya Kuchiki. The first time Yachiru dragged her sister into her snack run (I/E eating all the snacks laid out for the various activities certain captains held for other soul reapers) Hana found a love for calligraphy, even if she couldn't read what Byakuya was painting.

Deciding to humor her in the hopes that she could get Yachiru to quit pestering him, he was surprised to discover that Hana loved to read. Once she learned kanji, katakana and hiragana, it was all he could do to keep her from devouring any book or scroll she came across.

Realizing that, he introduced her to the public library for shinigami and she was hooked. Any time Zaraki needed to find her, he had someone lead him there and he would usually find her reading under a tree.

Another thing they found out was that Hana was very good a kido, particularly anything that exploded. It surprised everyone because squad eleven was notorious for looking down on people who had kido type swords. It was part of the reason why they disliked the fourth so much.

To the surprise of everyone, Hana _did_ have a zanpakuto. She was just too young to hear it at the moment.

Then again, she really didn't need to use a zanpakuto on people. Whenever she was angry at someone or really upset, she lost control of her powers and leveled enough spirit energy to rival her father Zaraki. That usually flattened people to the point where they left her alone.

* * *

By the time she was nine, her body suddenly stopped growing entirely. It baffled Unohana, until she had the sense to ask Hana what was going on.

Apparently Hana had learned the trick Yachiru used to stay so young, even though when Zaraki originally found her she was still a baby.

Hana didn't want to grow up just yet. Growing up meant she would eventually have to leave her father and sister, and she didn't want that at all. She had enough trouble sleeping alone in her new room next to Yachiru!

Hana was a bit of a cuddle monster when she was tired. More than once, one of the other captains would find her curled up like a kitten in their office.

She only did that with a select few, but it was still rather cute to see.

Among those were Unohana, Soi Fon, Byakuya, Komamura, Toshiro, Zaraki and Ukitake. There were a few captains she would run away from though.

Aizen had been officially put on the SWA's offender list when he said something he really shouldn't have to Hana when she went to visit Hinamori one day. After that, Hana avoided his division like the plague.

Hinamori still couldn't believe he repeated word for word one of the worst pick up lines the Eleventh used on females to a six year old. The fact that she had gone straight to Unohana the second he said it to her only made it worse.

As it was, he was lucky she didn't repeat it to Zaraki, who most certainly would have strung him up for the offense.

Zaraki may be a bloodthirsty captain, but he was fiercely overprotective of the two girls.

Gin still found it hilarious that when Aizen attempted to put Hana under his hypnosis, he was mistakenly branded a pedophile by a six year old.

He really shouldn't have asked her if she wanted to see his zanpakuto.

* * *

For the past eight years since Zaraki found and adopted Hana, things were rather calm. The little girl wormed her way into the coldest of captains, from the uptight Soi Fon to the aloof Byakuya.

She was a master of kido when she put her mind to it, but had yet to attain her shikai state. Like Yachiru, she could be insanely fast whenever she wanted to be, especially when trying to gain an alibi after a prank.

She was the Seireitei's sweetheart, despite being the youngest daughter of their most bloodthirsty captain.

Though her strange power caught everyone's attention, it was clear she was a natural soul reaper, even if it was unlikely that she would ever willingly leave the eleventh squad.

The only problem that the more serious soul reapers had was that she was particularly clingy to those she liked. The only people who knew _why_ that was were Unohana and Zaraki, and they weren't talking.

A few were rather mystified as to why Zaraki didn't try to train such a thing out of his adopted daughter.

Zaraki normally would have, had he not known that Hana had been abused from a young age. It was a miracle she trusted people at all, with how he had found her.

* * *

Hana was with her class in the World of the Living when they were accosted by hundreds of what appeared to be owls.

She had once watched a movie called _The Birds_ and ever since had become afraid of the creatures in large groups. She could handle a flock of about ten, but any larger than that and she would take cover.

Zaraki hadn't been happy about that, and had used the idiot responsible as a training dummy for nearly three months.

Kira, the lieutenant of squad three (and the one who ended up babysitting the Academy cadets for the week by losing at the unofficial lottery) caught on of the birds and looked at the letter they all appeared to be carrying.

They had mostly finished up in practice, so he grabbed a few letters (which for some reason all seemed geared towards Zaraki's daughter) before opening the gate back to the soul society.

Needless to say the confusion from the owl invasion would take a week to sort out.

Hana looked at the letters with no little amount of suspicion. They looked like something Captain Kurotsuchi would cook up to trap her, but this wasn't his style.

Even she had to admit the crazed captain had better tastes than to use _birds_ to do his bidding, particularly after her father informed his squad that anyone idiot enough to capitalize on her fear of the avian creatures would become his personal pin cushion for a year.

The fact he was a captain wouldn't spare him from such a threat either.

The thing that baffled everyone was the fact that while the birds were clearly gunning for her, the name was completely wrong.

Whoever this Lillian was, she most definitely did _not_ share a room with Hana.

The next time she went into the world of the Living, Yachiru and Captain Unohana went with her. Once again the owls descended, but this time the name had changed.

Now it read Chidarake Hana.

When informed of the owls before, the Head Captain wanted answers. So they caught an owl and had Unohana write a simple request for information. Since the letters were in romanji, that was what Unohana wrote the reply in.

* * *

Three days later a woman who reminded Hana of Soi Fon arrived in the most bizarre outfit she had ever seen.

Unohana was acting as her guardian for the moment, since even with the restriction Zaraki had a tendency to attract hollows en masse.

McGonagall looked for the person who sent the reply. Normally they didn't send owls this far east, but occasionally it did happen when the child moved out of Europe.

Though that really only happened with pure or half blood children who's parents had placed their names on the roster when they were born.

She found the two most likely candidates. A woman who reminded her of Poppy and an eleven year old girl with bright red hair. The girl looked painfully reminiscent of Lillian Potter...the deceased Girl-Who-Lived who was killed a year and a half after Albus foolishly left her at her aunts.

She had warned him that Petunia wouldn't care for the child, and learning that the woman had killed the toddler out of neglect had driven her to drink for two years. The infuriating thing was when Arabella informed Albus that Lillian's body was dug up by the dog that belonged to Vernon Dursley's sister and spotted by a neighbor who was gardening at the time, he had done everything in his power to cover it up from the muggleborns that came into the school for the next five years, and then subtly shifted the whole 'Savior' nonsense to the only other child who fit the bill of his precious prophecy.

Neville Longbottom.

At least that boy had his grandmother to keep him from getting an oversized head. That had been part of Albus' excuse of placing Lillian with her aunt.

She approached the two, and noted with some pain the child's green eyes. They reminded her of Lily.

She was really going to need a drink after this.

"Are you Hana Chidarake?"

"Hai."

"Hana-chan," the woman said patiently.

"Yes," she said in a sulky and accented English.

"I'm afraid her English isn't that good just yet. My name is Unohana Retsu. Her father asked me to handle this, since he would draw too much attention."

"My name is Professor McGonagall. I believe you wanted to know about Hogwarts?" she said. If she was right she was going to need a translation charm.

McGonagall remembered her Japanese lessons, and gave Unohana a polite bow. Unlike some of the staff, she had traveled to Japan once before she took her Mastery exam. She was starting to remember the long year she had spent learning their customs.

"Yes, I am also curious as to why so many owls were sent."

"I have no idea why that happened. Usually only three or four are sent at a time if an answer isn't received. Perhaps they had trouble finding her early, so they all waited until she could be sensed before showing up as a flock."

Unohana nodded. That would make sense, because Hana lived in the soul society and only the dead could inhabit it.

"Why don't we talk at a cafe?" suggested Unohana.

McGonagall was surprised to find the cafe served Earl Gray (next door to a liquor shop too, but she was a teacher and should set a good example for the girl) and she explained what Hogwarts was.

Unohana asked intelligent questions, often translating them for the girl. By the time McGonagall left, she couldn't help but feel that she had passed some sort of test. That didn't stop her from going to her liquor cabinet and taking a long draw of scotch.

She heard a knock, and had a feeling it was the headmaster.

After the incident with Lillian, McGonagall avoided the man as much as she could. Any respect she had for him was long since gone, and she advised her lions not to accept any advice from him.

What she didn't realized was that because of that instruction, Dumbledore's future power base withered away. Any help he might have had in influencing the Wizangamot or the Ministry was being taken away, one student at a time.

Especially when McGonagall was forced to explain why she gave such an instruction to impressionable eleven year olds. Finding out that the headmaster went against his deputy in order to place the girl-who-lived in an abusive home tended to worry you.

If anything bad happened during his watch, chances were good that parents would remove their children from the school until he was removed.

* * *

Head Captain Yamamoto looked at little Hana with interest. It had never occurred to any of them that Hana was a former witch. And he had heard some disturbing rumors concerning England's previous Dark Lord.

Rumors about a magic that split the soul, which went against everything the soul society stood for.

If a person split their soul, they corroded the precarious balance. It was the Quincy situation all over again!

Since she had the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the magical communities, she would be investigating the rumors about a magic that split souls and gave the dead a new body to work with.

If she found evidence of such magic, Yamamoto was going to have Soi Fon and her group find all records of it and destroy everything. While dark magic on it's own was barely tolerated, they didn't want to chance the balance of living and dead being broken by egotistical wizards on a power trip.


	2. Chapter 2

Hana was _not_ looking forward to her first official mission. While it was a relatively safe one for someone like her, the fact was that the magical community got on her nerves since day one.

The only good thing about the whole thing was that because of the unique reitsu wizards had, she wouldn't need a gigai to get around. Magic had the annoying tendency to make soul reapers (and by extension hollows) corporeal to the living. Soul reapers would only konso a wizard if they were paid double.

Since most wizards lived past a hundred on average, that condition was usually met. However whenever a war erupted inside the magical communities, it always resulted in them being caught in the crossfire.

Rumor had it that some had even been captured by the wizards and forced to fight in their war during the last one.

Anyone who was captured or went missing was listed as KIA automatically, unless they somehow managed to escape and return home.

That only happened once, and the Shihouin heir wasn't talking about that nightmarish time.

* * *

On her first day in Europe (complete with a translation device from Squad 12) she had already discovered a problem with her presence.

First of all, she apparently resembled the former Girl-Who-Lived, Lillian Potter. Secondly, because of her nationality people looked down upon her to the point that they were extremely rude without any of the social niceties Byakuya used with people he didn't like.

(Unknown to the Kuchiki Clan Head, Hana was extremely observant to the point where she picked up several of his tricks to insult people without them being able to show their offense in public.)

The moment she returned to the barracks after buying the supplies she needed, she let loose a string of curses and words not meant for polite company.

Zaraki let her get it all out, then Ikkaku bravely asked what caused that torrent to come loose.

No one was willing to ask _where_ she picked up that combination of foul words, considering the fact that Zaraki might turn the poor sap into a training partner. Then again, considering she lived in Squad Eleven, it wasn't that surprising she picked up such foul language in the first place.

Hana complained about the way they had looked at her, with reactions ranging from disgust or outright annoyance. All because she wasn't from Europe and could only speak English with a translation charm. The only ones to treat her with any respect were the goblins!

Though even she had to admit, their reaction to her appearance was a tad odd. To her surprise, she had vaults already set up in England. Because of what she was, they had asked for her name before they told her of them.

The goblin Griphook had explained that the vaults in question belonged to her parents, but had been sealed due to recent events. Because she was a shinigami, she had unlimited access to them.

Goblins _liked_ shinigami more than they did wizards simply because shinigami treated them like equals and never tried to cheat the goblins out of what was rightfully theirs. Plus as long as they worked with the shinigami, the soul reapers would appear promptly in case of hollow attack without bothering to modify their memories.

After hearing her rant and rave about how much the mission sucked already, Yachiru took her to prank Kurotsuchi for a few hours.

If only to calm her little sister down enough to get back to the task at hand.

* * *

"_GET BACK HERE YOU DAMN MENACE!"_ shrieked Mayuri.

Hana had somehow destroyed most of his lab, all of his Seireitei surveillance equipment and at least ten illegal experiments. All with a few bombs and some well placed kido spells.

Which was why she was running like mad to the nearest captain, who turned out to be Soi Fon.

Eyes glinting evilly, Soi Fon vanished with the girl into her barracks, where they spent the next three hours working on a technique she had discovered and was trying to perfect.

(To her eternal embarrassment, the girl only had to be shown it once, and Hana managed to get it on the third try.)

* * *

_September 1rst..._

Hana boarded the train with hours to spare, and went straight to sleep. She woke up when a noisy redhead with freckles tried to break into her compartment. Three seconds of his irritating personality, and she kicked him out of the compartment.

Ten minutes after that, a girl with bushy brown hair came in. She was considerably more polite, and actually knew a little Japanese, so Hana woke up enough to hold an intelligent conversation. Another boy entered, nervously. He had been kicked out of the last compartment by three fifth year Slytherins.

"Can...can I sit here?" he asked.

"Sure. Hope you don't mind sitting with a foreigner and a muggleborn."

He shook his head, and sat next to Hermione.

"N-Neville L-Longbottom..." he mumbled.

"Hermione Granger," said the brown haired girl.

"Chidarake Hana... Sorry, I mean Hana Chidarake. Unohana said you guys say you have the names reversed here..." said Hana.

"What does Chidarake Hana mean?" asked Hermione, curious.

"Loosely translated it means Bloody Flower. My dad found me abandoned drawing flowers in my own blood, which is where I got the name."

Hermione gaped.

"While I can understand that kind of reasoning, what possessed him to name you something like 'bloody'?"

Hana shrugged.

"My dad is a fighter, not a poet. His favorite thing to do is fighting. My sister Yachiru and I love riding on his shoulders when he goes out for a good fight. Though his sense of direction could use some work."

And with that, Hermione got into a long discussion with Hana over the differences of Japan VS England in concerns to magic. She got her first taste of Hana's brand when Draco made his appearance.

Hana listened to his speech, unimpressed, and when he tried to evict them from their compartment, smirked.

"Bakudo 1: Sai!"

Draco went ramrod straight, and fell to the floor. His arms were completely pinned behind him.

"That should wear off before we reach the school, but if you annoy me again I won't be so nice."

Draco fled, but Neville was still in shock.

"He's never going to leave you alone now..." said Neville.

"Like I care. I've seen people like him before, and they all either pissed themselves when they annoyed me too much or my dad came and really scared them."

Neville gave a small grin.

"I would pay to see someone scare Lucius Malfoy into pissing himself..." he mumbled.

Hana looked at him grinning evilly.

"How much would you be willing to pay, and when do you want to arrange it? My dad could kick any pansy wizard without moving."

Neville grinned shyly back. Hana seemed like a great friend to have, so long as you stayed on her good side.

And with that, Hana got into a debate on gardening with the shy boy, with Hermione piping in every once in a while with input she learned in a book.

Hermione learned more about gardening talking to them than she would have from a book. While they had embarrassed her a little, the fact they didn't hold it against her put her in the right direction.

Once they got the sweets, with Hana deciding to spread the chaos, used a newly invented type of hell butterflies to send Yachiru some of the wizard candy...and a request for photos.

The look of evil on her face was enough to send shivers down their spines.

* * *

Hana waited impatiently for the sorting. She had insured that Ron Weasly (the annoying redhead from earlier) wouldn't bother her by breaking his nose. Draco, upon seeing that, didn't even bother trying to get near her until he could gain her trust enough.

"Chidarake Hana!"

_'Difficult, very difficult. Intelligent enough for Ravenclaw, braver than most Gryffindors and more cunning than any Slytherin in the house today. But your loyalty is second to none. Which house would you like to be in? Think carefully child.'_

'Which house wouldn't look down on me for being Japanese and violent?'

If the hat could grin, it would have.

_'There is only one option for those requirements. I hope you stir things up in...'_

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Hana skipped over to the Hufflepuff table, grinning the entire time.

* * *

Hana stretched in her new bed. It was less comfortable compared to the one in the room she shared at home, but she chalked that up to cultural differences. If she had trouble sleeping tonight she was going to sleep under the bed. She was used to floor-type mattresses.

Close to her, still asleep, were Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, and Hermione Granger. Hana had gone before Hermione, and determined not to lose the only female friend she had, Hermione had asked to be placed with her friend. Considering she was showing such loyalty to a girl she barely knew, the hat agreed to it.

Hermione woke up the moment she sensed movement outside the beds.

Years of raiding the library in her neighborhood had enabled her to sense whenever someone was moving within fifty feet. This sense was heightened to sixty when she was half asleep. Her parent's bedroom was twenty feet from hers.

Which was why she glared at Hana when she read the clock and realized it was well before six.

"Go back to sleep," she growled.

Hana cheerfully grinned at her.

"Time difference. Can't sleep."

"Don't care. Too bloody early for you to be up."

Hana grinned. Squad eleven was FILLED with people who killed anyone that was too cheerful in the morning. It was a daily battle to get to the lone coffee machine that Zaraki had managed to get from the head captain.

The only reason he even managed to get that was because the Squad periodically raided any nearby squads for coffee every morning, and there were complaints.

A thought came to her, as she said "Can I have some coffee please?"

Without warning there was a pop, and a large pot of coffee appeared where the water usually sat.

Hana and Hermione stared.

"How...?"

"Heard from someone that there are house elves here. If you ask the right way, they bring stuff to you."

She looked to the coffee and said "Thank you!"

Hermione glared at her, but drank the coffee without blinking. Once the caffeine hit, her glare went down enough that she could hold a coherent conversation.

"Is this going to be a daily thing, or should I just tie you to your bed?"

"...Daily."

Hermione stifled a curse, and drank her coffee. In order to keep the girl from hexing her later, Hana did the only thing she could think of.

She held up a book about spirit energy and the different types documented. Hermione snatched it up, and the glare went away. She had successfully diverted the bookworm.

Professor Sprout handed them their time tables, and Hermione stifled a yawn. It was too bloody early for her to be up.

Fortunately their first class was History of Magic, because she was out like a light within two minutes of the teacher's drone. Once it was over, she was more awake and ready to learn.

Which was a good thing, considering they had Herbology next.

* * *

Hana rarely paid any mind to the owls in the morning, until she heard the distinct chime that usually accompanied a Hell Butterfly. Once it landed on her hand, it started sparking wildly.

She grinned, and placed it carefully on the table with a large space cleared in front of her.

What happened next would be the source of rumors.

The butterfly unloaded it's entire burden at once, nearly spilling over the table. Everyone stared at the amount of things.

"Wow...looks like the SWA came through!" chirped Hana.

"SWA?" asked Hermione in shock.

"The place I live is primarily dominated by men. The SWA is a place where the females can relax and hash out ideas for the lower ranked female members, and keep the predators from causing too much trouble."

"What sort of place do you live in?" asked Susan, curious.

"We primarily try to keep a balance and prevent monsters from harming the general population. We try to keep people safe from things that hunt them, but it's not exactly easy. Sometimes we have to wipe memories in order to keep the peace, though there are rare exceptions."

"What sort of monsters?" asked Hannah, worried.

"We call them Hollows, because they have holes in their body, usually in the chest. I heard tales about them being other places, but I have yet to see it."

Dumbledore listened to her description with interest. He had heard rumors of a creature known as a Hollow, but he had never seen it. Such creatures were harder to control than dementors.

The rumors went that unlike dementors, who devoured souls through the mouth, hollows actually_ ate_ the soul.

But the girl never said who the organization she worked for was. From what he heard, they were called Soul Reapers, and they lived in a place known as Avalon.

He would have to learn how strong her ties were to Avalon...

* * *

Hana practiced with her wooden sword (courtesy of Ikkaku, who didn't want her to get rusty) in the common room, carefully avoiding her dormmates.

"HANA! Could you please sit still for five minutes?" yelled Hermione.

"I could, but why would I want to? I've already completed all the homework given, and read enough books to keep me happy for a month."

Hermione thought hard.

"Would anyone here be interested in learning swordsmanship?" she called out.

To Hana's surprise, several people raised their hands. She took a hand count, and found the number to be an even dozen. She had about thirteen extra swords, so it wouldn't be too hard. The only issue was her patience.

She could sit through lessons, but teaching others was hard for her.

"Right, if I teach you, then you had better not slack off! I'm a hard task master, so be prepared!" she said.

Hermione hid a grin. Her plan to keep from getting hit with Hana's sword was already paying off.

* * *

Dumbledore was planning on getting information on Chidarake Hana. The girl looked far too much like Lillian Aurora Potter, the now dead Girl-Who-Lived. The mere fact that she resembled the brat was enough of a reason for him to take an interest.

If she proved pliable, he would carefully cultivate her into a useable pawn. If not, she would be crushed without hesitation. He looked outside the window with a cold smile. This year could make or break him, depending on how he acted.


	3. Chapter 3

Zaraki was _bored. _Ever since Hana left on her mission, things had calmed down to the point that it was _boring. _Hana seemed to brighten up the entire Soul Society, without even realizing it.

Byakuya lost some of the frost. Toshiro was a bit more sociable and didn't yell at his lieutenant as much. Kyoraku didn't drink as much, to the relief of Nanao. Gin tended to help her prank people. Even Soi Fon became nicer. Though Hana generally helped trip her fat lieutenant in an effort to make him loose weight.

Without her around, the entire place seems bland. Yachiru tried to make up for it, but she wasn't having any luck.

It seemed like the life had drained from the place.

Worried, Unohana sent a silent request to Hana... and a week later people seemed to perk up.

Since she would be stuck at the school for the better part of seven years, unless she finished early, she would simply have to be taught how to open the gate home by herself so she could deliver her reports in person.

Now, once a week, she would return home to cause absolute chaos. It wasn't perfect, but thanks to that, Unohana saw less people being admitted to her division for alcohol poisoning and depression.

A month after starting her classes on kendo, Hana saw a distinct increase in students. Apparently, several muggleborns were highly put out about the lack of P.E. classes at the school, and were eager for anything, even if it was being taught by a foreign firstie.

As a result of this, she had to raid the Shinigami Academy supply closet for more swords. She wouldn't dare borrow the actual practice swords until the people she was teaching could be trusted not to cut themselves with them.

* * *

Hana had a few issues with the castle.

First, the diversity of magic classes was sadly lacking. There were only a few classes available, and when she asked about others, she was referred to several tutors in other countries. Second, the food was fatty, over done, and was geared towards a heart attack. (That, she knew because she gave the entire menu towards Unohana, who had been horrified. It was like they wanted these children to die early.) The only drink that wasn't sugared down was the water, which was just wrong. Third, the atmosphere wasn't based on learning or camaraderie (except in Hufflepuff) it was new blood versus old blood. Foreigners seemed to be ostracized to the point of racism.

And she wasn't going to get started on the fact that the only physical activity available was either Quidditch (which was only available for a select few, and the pitch was almost always dominated by Gryffindor for some reason) or the class she started.

Something had to be done, and fast. She wasn't going to return home for the holidays a blob like Omaeda!

Her first opportunity came during Halloween. The second she heard about the troll, she sent a message to Unohana. If she got hurt enough, then Unohana (as her primary physician/secondary guardian) could legally come in and have a chat with Madam Pomphrey. Dumbledore, when he heard the request a month ago, refused to allow another foreign outsider inside the castle.

But Hermione looked up the school by laws. Since she was a foreigner, she could legally bring in her primary physician if the School Healer was insufficient for her needs, particularly if she had been in a life threatening situation.

She had already set the scene for that, by asking the house elves for a special menu because of her diet. In Japan (and the Soul Society) the main diet wasn't corn, but rice. Sadly, the school menu had been in place for over six hundred years, and the House Elves were barely able to handle special diets as it was. They were given a set amount of recipes, and that was it.

Luckily, thanks to the wonders of the internet (and bribing Kurotsuchi with a month free of pranks and chaos on her end in exchange for a working laptop with internet in the world of the living) she was able to provide new recipes. They were so ecstatic that they were trying every new recipe they could each week. Hana and the Puffs helped by leading a secret critique list for the students, and giving the elves the reviews.

So far it proved a positive experience. They had already added Caesar salad, pizza, lightly roasted chicken, and onigiri to the school menu.

She was going to add desserts and lightly sweetened snacks by next semester. First she had to get these kids on a healthier diet before she introduced them to anything sugary. Plus she knew for a fact there were some diabetic students in the school. Unohana could create a menu for them that would help them manage their problem.

She secretly suspected it was the over greasy, sugary, fat loaded diet in the school that gave them their disease in the first place.

Hana immediately headed to the bathroom where Hermione had been holed up since Charms. She had unsuccessfully tried to bring her out after Ron insulted her and the fact that she had been trying to help him with their assignment.

Hana had broken his nose for that, and had planned to rile up the Puffs for a bit of payback. As it was, the Terror Twins had already given her their approval to prank Ron without any worries of retribution.

Hermione came out of the stall, still sniffling. She was confronted with a wall of red hair.

"(Sniff) Hana? What's going on?" she said.

"Some idiot let a troll in. I'm going to try and land in the Hospital Wing so we can bring in a real medical expert."

"You're WHAT?!"

"Hermione, Dumbledore won't let anyone in if he can help it. Because I've been laying the groundwork that I have medical issues, he'll have no choice but to allow Unohana and the others in. I'm sure Pomphrey wouldn't mind talking to her."

Hana's hand flew to her nose. Something reeked, and it was coming closer.

"Hermione, stay low to the ground and start moving towards the wall."

Hermione knew Hana's instincts were almost animistic, so she didn't argue. Hana went to the door to see where it was coming from, when it exploded. Hermione gave a small yelp of surprise, but stayed quiet.

Hana drew the beast's attention, and got a nasty hit to the side. She could feel three of her ribs break on impact.

Her mission complete, she then threw her right hand out...drawing her hidden sword. Hana had a short kodachi sword when it was sealed. She went to work on the troll.

Her sword was razor sharp, and kept the troll on it's toes. By the time she was done, the head rolled on the ground.

Her original three broken ribs became one massive bruise, a sprained ankle from where she landed wrong, and a concussion from hitting the wall.

To insure Unohana made it on time, she sent a second Hell Butterfly with a list of injuries. If nothing else that would get her to the castle before Dumbledore even considered trying to wipe their memories.

(During her investigation on the school, she learned that no less than _ten_ accidents had been covered up. Further inquiry proved that not only unearthed the fact that their families never knew about this, but that those involved had their memories wiped of the incident.)

When this was over, she was going to have Susan send a letter to her aunt to inquire about the fact that memories of being wiped after accidents.

If that wasn't enough, she had noted with some concern that the most Snape did after potion spills was to deduct points and give detentions. And she had a detention to clean the place once already, and not once did he have her use anything that would remove the reactive agents that had built up from hundreds if not thousands of potion spills. Not once did he send anyone to the Hospital Wing after an accident, unless he couldn't give the antidote.

And the magical community wondered why birth rates was at an all time low. If the potion mishaps and lack of healthy foods wasn't bad enough, they were so behind the time that modern miracles weren't happening. Hermione had even admitted that her parents had to go to a specialist for her.

Hana planned to wake these people up, before they destroyed themselves. She could work on the attitude problems another year. Her first priority was getting these people active and healthy. Then she could work on improving the classes.

And she knew perfectly well what her biggest obstacle would be.

Albus Dumbledore. The man was so stubborn that his head was stuck up his ass farther than most of the pure bloods in Slytherin. He was determined to keep them stuck in the Dark Ages, that it was no wonder the British Communities were behind the times.

Unohana startled Pomphrey by coming through the gate with two others. Everyone knew port keys and apparition didn't work inside the school, but the wards were never built to prevent gateways from opening inside.

Dumbledore came in after Unohana closed the gate, and frowned. He was planning to wipe the memory of the fight with the troll before Hana even thought to message home about it.

It had become habit since he became Headmaster to wipe memories of dangerous accidents from the children's minds. The _Prophet_ even commented on the fact that accidents were down in the school.

He actually believed that children shouldn't remember being hurt. They should enjoy their time in the school.

He never took a good long look at the students, or he would have known how miserable that he was making them.

"Headmaster!" said Poppy. Once she recognized Unohana's Healer's aura, she let the woman check on Hana. The poor girl was going to spend the rest of the night in the bed, and even then the bruise would take a week to go away.

"Who is this?"

"I am Hana Chidarake's primary physician. She sent me a message right after she found the troll and I came here first thing."

"I'm afraid we can't have outsiders coming in whenever they please. You would have to be approved by the Board..."

"Actually, Hana has a very rare medical issue, and as the school's by-laws state that a child's primary healer may enter the school during a medical emergency to assist the school's Healer," said Unohana pleasantly, her eyes never leaving the old man.

Dumbledore couldn't believe it. There were two Pomphrey's, and he was hard pressed to say which scared him more. The fact she knew about that particular by-law worried him.

"I didn't notice any medical issues..." he said, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Hana has great difficulty eating red meat, and has a severe allergy to peanuts. Your school menu is so outdated that it is a health hazard. Are you trying to kill your students, or are you blind to the health issues?" asked Unohana, never once raising her voice.

Most of that wasn't true, as Hana rather enjoyed eating nuts, and she wasn't too fond of red meat. However Dumbledore didn't know about that. His legilmency would never work on a soul reaper thanks to their zanpakuto.

By the time Unohana was done listing the health issues the school had (from Hana's reports home) Dumbledore was cowed into a corner. The fact that he was willfully endangering student's health because he refuse to make minor changes infuriated Unohana, which was always dangerous ground to tread.

Fortunately Madam Pomphrey was spared the lion's share of the blame, because she simply didn't know about the problems aside from the potion's issue, which she could do nothing about since Snape refused to send the students to her, and the children tried to avoid her care.

Dumbledore left the Hospital Wing, eager to avoid Unohana, who was terrifying. Poppy ended up hitting it off with the woman, who rather enjoyed discussing healing potions while they worked.

When Hana finally escaped the Hospital Wing, three things had been accomplished.

First, Dumbledore had been successfully diverted from erasing her memory of the event. The fewer times that he did that, the better chance that the students would survive in the outside word. Hana was a firm believer that accidents were nature's way to learn, and that pain was the method to make that lesson stick.

Second, Unohana had made contact with Pomphrey, which meant they would be able to share new medical techniques to make the time spent in the Hospital Wing shorter and more pleasant. If Hana didn't know any better, she would have sword the two were related. Pomphrey was horrified to discover that the school menu was contributing to the low birth rate. Students simply didn't know what their options were, and the House Elves didn't know how to cook anything different without help.

Third, and this was the most shocking thing she had ever seen, Snape ended up _flirting_ with Unohana, and she was giving as good as she got. She even heard them setting up a date outside of Hogsmeade.

At this point she could only hope that Snape loosened up with a steady girlfriend. It didn't hurt that Unohana could come halfway cross the world in a few minutes. As it was, he had agreed to send anyone hit by potions straight to the Hospital Wing after an antidote was administered.

* * *

Hana was heading home for Christmas, but the Headmaster didn't know that. Since she lived in the Soul Society, she had made an arrangement with the house elves who usually stacked the presents anyway.

She would pretend to stay at the school, when in fact she would be spending the majority of the holiday in the soul society except for meal times. There was a marked improvement in the diet, which was a relief to the other students.

The fried chicken and large turkeys were now supplemented by lightly seared fish and salads. Even the teachers noticed the improvement in the menu. Dumbledore kept turning a blind eye, his taste buds deadened by centuries of the same food. He didn't even notice when he ate grilled chicken instead of fried.

Hana stared at the silvery cloak that lay on her bed. It didn't have a card or anything, but she could feel the reitsu pouring off it. It didn't feel right.

So she took it with her to the 12th division to have it analyzed. What she found startled her.

"This cloak is part of a rather irritating set of three. A staff, a stone and this cloak. The set is known as the Deathly Hallows, and it was placed in the World of the Living by the Spirit King himself. Legend has it that whomever can unite all three will become the Heir of the Spirit King. The three items were divided between the three known children of the King, and so far not a single descendant remains alive."

"Is it dangerous?"

"There are a few kido placed on it, but they should be easy enough to remove. But in exchange I want a sample of the cloak."

"You can take a small sample, but I am not letting you destroy it."

Kurotsuchi accepted that, and took a small cutting of the cloak. To her amazement, the cloak seemed to regrow the sample cut from it. It appeared to draw in the reitsu that was naturally flowing in the Soul Society.

"Fascinating. It appears to have similar properties as a Quincy Bow."

"And that means?"

"As long as there is enough spirit energy present, any damage will be reversed so long as the cloak isn't destroy completely."

"...Fine, you can take a larger sample."

Kurotsuchi grinned evilly, and took a good hand sized portion. Now he would have a better sample to test with, and a control.

Hana took the cloak to Squad 4, who had an entire team that specialized in reversing kido damage. This seemed right up their alley.

They found several spells on the cloak, including one that curse whoever it bonded to with extreme bad luck. When she finally put it on, she discovered it not only hid her from sight, but anything that detected spirit energy as well.

By the time the others came back to the school, Hana had been able to change the menu a bit. Now the students could order what they want and save on food costs.

The house elves were able to get her an amount of what the Headmaster supposedly spent on food, and with her new system they cut it in half.

Dumbledore would spend an entire year trying to figure out where the extra money was coming from.

* * *

She slowly introduced the students to something she called snack stations which were filled with popular fruit that was grown on the grounds. Students who wanted a pick-me-up would grab an apple or orange and take a bite.

Originally the teachers would complain, until Pomphrey mentioned that she was trying to curb some bad eating habits and the results spoke for themselves.

Students had more energy and were staying awake longer. The grades were improving too, as the healthy snacks were helping them study better.

Hana had a lot of fun scheduling no-meat Mondays once a month. Some people complained, but results spoke for themselves. Poppy saw fewer problems in health since Hana took over the school menu.


End file.
